


Echoes from the Past

by LabyrinthineNyx



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, Domestic Violence, Drama, F/M, Gen, Past Abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2020-11-08 19:22:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20840723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LabyrinthineNyx/pseuds/LabyrinthineNyx
Summary: Brooklyn Nine-Nine: No one knows more than 3 things about Rosa Diaz.  Jake Peralta takes it upon himself to uncover secrets from the past, but he unknowingly opens up Rosa's hellish story that she has been trying to run from since she joined the Nine Nine.





	1. Revalations

Rosa Diaz, no one knew much about the dark-haired detective with whom they had worked with for the past 4 years. It had always bugged Jake Peralta to no end, they were friends, right?

“I don’t know Charles, but I think today is the day we get some answers. Besides, there isn’t anything to do around here.” Jake was bored, it was a slow day at the Nine Nine and he had just witnessed Rosa take a bite of an apple. “And look, we now know four things about Rosa, she likes apples.”

Jakes best friend Charles Boyle was trying not to make eye contact with him. No matter how much he loved to goof off with Jake, he was trying to catch up on paperwork. “Bad idea Jake, do you want to die?”

“No, I do not, but I’m bored, and I say we do this. Operation Break into the Secret Life of Rosa Diaz is a go.” Jake knew a code name for their operation would get Charles on board, and he was right. 

“Fine, Jakey, but I think the name is too long. And mentioning her by name might get us caught might I add.”

Jake pondered for a moment until he saw Rosa throw her apple across the room, hitting Hitchcock square in the chest. “See! Now we are back to knowing three things about Rosa, she hates apples. Or does that count as a thing?”

Charles smiled and rolled his chair closer to Jake. “I say it counts. Operation Splattered Apple is a go.”

“No, Charles, we aren’t calling it Splattered Apple,” Jake said in disgust. “Oh wait, I kind of like it. Operation Splattered Apple is a go!” 

Their task was proving to be a lot harder that they had previously thought. Even the police database wasn’t giving them much about her personal life. Her address seemed to change almost constantly, which explained why no one ever knew where she lived. A normal person would have given up long before they did, but the mystery intensified when they couldn’t uncover anything at all.

“Jake, I don’t like this,” Charles said uneasily as he watched his best friend get even more into his search. “Why don’t we just go and ask her some things?”

“Because, Charles, that wouldn’t be half as fun. And besides, she’s never budged when I’ve asked before.” Jake was starting to get frustrated. The detective in question was sitting less than 15 feet away and he knew almost nothing about her. They were supposed to be friends; they braved the police academy together for Pete’s sake. “I do have an idea, but I don’t think you are going to like it.”

Charles seemed to know what Jake was thinking before he even said it. It was the end of the workweek, so they did have the next two days off. “Does it have anything to do with having two days off?”

“Bingpot! My good lad,” Jake celebrated. “One of the things I know about her came from one drunken night many moons ago. She mentioned attending a ballet school when she was younger before being kicked out. I’ve already looked it up, here, look.” He turned his screen to Charles who saw an address for The American Ballet Academy. “I would bet my left shoe that they have records there that could give us more information. We ride at midnight!”

Charles high-fived Jake and the two got a few concerned stares, mostly from Amy who had grown jealous of the secret talk that they told her was none of her beeswax. To be truthful, Amy could never keep a secret and would have run to tell Rosa the moment the two had their backs turned.

“Could we leave in the morning though? It’s only a few hours away,” Charles begged.

“Oh, we are,” Jake returned in a mocking voice. “It just sounded cooler to say, ‘we ride at midnight!’”

Over the next two days, the two couldn’t believe their luck. They found Rosa’s old records at the school, but her name was different. She went by Nyssa Rivera, and they only caught it because of the photo ID on the front of the file. Why would she have changed her name? Their search then led them to Rosa’s old hometown where they spent an entire day questioning old neighbors and diving into old public records. When searching the name Nyssa Rivera, they found out what high school she had attended, old run ins with the law, and then they found their most surprising piece of evidence…she had been married. 

“Oh, my gawd,” Jake gushed as he tried to find more information on the subject. It was only an announcement from an online newspaper that they were able to find but it was enough dirt to rub into Rosa’s face when they got back. “His name was Damon Torres, just wait until everyone hears about this!”

“Jake, I think we need to drop this. What if she was running from something? I mean, she changed her entire name for a reason,” Charles begged.

“Yeah, but what if she changed it because she was sooo embarrassed by her life as a ballet dancer? It could mean anything Charles. Let’s get back to Brooklyn and let everyone at the Nine Nine know what we found. I can’t wait to see the look on Nyssa’s face! And yes, I’m calling her Nyssa from now on.”

By the time work came the next night for night shift, Jake was giddy with excitement. He now knew more about Rosa Diaz than anyone else at the precinct. Terry was the first to notice Jake's attitude and asked what was up. He just told Terry to wait until everyone was there for his ‘big announcement’. He had rehearsed it in his head because he didn’t want Rosa to be ashamed of who she was before the Nine Nine. Amy arrived shortly after Gina and Holt was on a conference call. Hitchcock and Scully rolled in together and then finally, Rosa arrived.  
Everyone seemed to know that something was going on by the way Jake and Charles kept hitting each other and telling each other to hush when their voices rose too high. After Rosa had sat down, Jake stood and got the attention of all his friends.

“Attention fellow friends and acquaintances, I mean you Hitchcock and Scully,” he said as he pointed to them as acquaintances. “We all have grown so close as friends over the last few years and I hope none of you have ever felt ashamed of being who you truly were meant to be.”

Rosa had now stood up from her desk in amusement and joined the crowd around Jake, crossing her leather covered arms in a typical Rosa fashion.

“I gather you here today to share the life of someone we barely know. Shame for one’s past doesn’t belong here; we must embrace who we once were. And I want you all to know I did this out of care, and not because of my obsessive need to solve cases. Charles and I tracked this information down so that we could understand our friend better. So, without further ado, I would like to introduce you to some one you already know…kind of. Gang, meet Nyssa Rivera, the ballet dancer from a little hometown just west of us.” He ended with his arm gesturing towards Rosa, and smiles erupted around the precinct at this revelation.

He expected Rosa to at least be a little angry, but shock and fear seemed to radiate from the now pale woman. She did not look like the Rosa he knew, she never looked as afraid as she was at this moment in time. 

Terry looked almost as shocked as she did, but when he pushed his way to the front of the group to stand before Jake, he got scary. “Jake, what did you do?” he demanded.  
Jake swallowed his fear for a moment and looked to Rosa who seemed frozen in place. “Operation Splattered Apple? I followed a lead to find out more about Rosa’s past?” He asked it more of a question because now he was feeling like he had just opened up a new case of bad.

Terry looked furious before he turned to Rosa, who was already moving for the exit. “Rosa, go, I’ll tell Holt and meet you at my car.”

The mounting tension and confusion in the room grew as the door to the bullpen slapped shut after Rosa. Terry aggressively pushed past Jake and let himself into Holts office, ignoring the Do Not Disturb sign attached precisely in the middle of it and slammed it closed behind him.

“What the hell just happened?” Amy said in confusion as Gina came to stand at her side. The two women glaring at him was making him uncomfortable, so he tried throwing Charles under the bus.

“Charles helped!” he yelled as Charles threw his hands up in frustration at being called out. 

“Jake this isn’t cool,” Amy continued. “Something is very wrong here; I’m going after Rosa.”

“No, you are not,” Captain Holt ordered as he followed Terry out of the office. They watched as Terry grabbed his gun, which concerned them all since they knew he was afraid of using it and hurried after Rosa. “I want all of you to get back to work RIGHT NOW and forget about what just happened here,” Holt yelled. The team scattered back to their desks as Captain Holt headed back to his office. “Let’s hope your little stunt went unnoticed, Peralta. I want you in my office when they get back to discuss your disciplinary action.”

Rosa was afraid, no, terrified was a better word to use in this situation. The moment Jake called her by her birth name, fear shot through her entire being and her body went numb. This cant be happening, she thought as she sped the short distance to her apartment. She was supposed to wait for Terry, but her instincts were pulling her home. He would catch up, but hopefully everything would be okay. She had spent the past 5 years running from her past, hoping and praying that it wouldn’t ever find her again. 

Please be okay, please be okay, please be okay…she pleaded into the night as she threw her bike into park and ran down the sidewalk to her apartment. She had her gun drawn as she maneuvered the empty hallways and quickly found her door. No!

The door was split at the lock as if someone had kicked it in. He found us. “Nora?” she called as she pushed the broken door open the rest of the way. Her eyes scanned the space as it looked for hiding spots and intruders. “Nora?” she called again as her small, careful steps made their way to the kitchen. She saw her then, laying in a pool of her own blood with her throat cut. Her hand flew to her mouth to stifle a terrified sob as she left her friend there and continued her search for the most precious thing in her entire world. She steadied her gun and let out a shaky breath before calling who she knew to be the most evil being in the world. “Damon, come out you slimy bastard. I know you’re here.” God, I hope you are still here.

“Nyssa,” a dark voice said from the shadows. His hand found the light and flipped it on, showing her that her deepest fear had come to claim her.

She wasted no time in chit chat, she immediately fired a shot to which he ducked, missing him by mere inches. Before she could even get another shot off though he tackled her to the floor and wrenched the gun from her hand, pinning her to the cold tile. “Damon you asshole, how did you find me? I thought you would have been halfway across the world with the FBI after you.” She needed to stall until Terry got here, unless Damon killed her first.

“Oh Nyssa, I’ve been staying out of their grasp quite well. You never figured out who I still knew from the inside. And let me tell you how excited I was when he told me about your little friend, Jake was it, who lit up your trail again like wildfire. Baby when your name popped up in my system when that little asshole tried digging, I almost melted right there,” he said in a sultry voice.

She couldn’t stand him. She couldn’t stand his smell, his face, those hands holding her down… She couldn’t move, he had her pinned down too tight. She tried bringing her knee up to knee him in the groin, but she just couldn’t move. So, she spit in his face as the next best thing. The familiar look of anger filled his features then and he backhanded her across the face, hard.

“Is that the best you can do?” she asked as she bit back the sting. “I remember you used to put a little more effort into your punches.”

He smiled at her and then quickly grabbed her gun. He planted the barrel into her shoulder and put his finger on the trigger. “Dare me?” he asked as malice dripped from his voice.

“Oh, I know you will,” she responded as she realized that her hands were now free. “Ill go freely with you if you just leave her alone,” she promised.

“Leave her alone? Before tonight, I hadn’t seen her in 5 years, and you want me to just leave her alone? No, you BOTH are coming with me when I find her.”

Find her? Good, she remembered the drill. She couldn’t let that happen. She took a bet on the gun to her shoulder and lost, but after the shot went off, the adrenaline helped her push him off her. She flipped over and tried crawling for her ax under the couch, but Damon’s rough hands pulled her back towards him. She flipped over and landed a hell of a good hit to his face and scrambled up as he tried regaining his senses. The blood running down her arm from the bullet made her lather jacket sticky against her arm, so she shook it off and threw it at him as she ran for one of the bedrooms where she had another gun. She slammed open the door and was met with three of Damon’s mercenaries who had just climbed in through the window. They are cutting off the exits. In her surprise, one of them hit her in the stomach and she fought the instinct to double over. He hit her again, but she fought back this time. All three of them advanced and although she was pretty good in a fight, she quickly found herself losing. Her knuckles were bloody and raw by the time Terry arrived. He knew her story, him and Captain Holt. He came prepared but was caught off guard by Damon and two new mercenaries who ambushed him from the kitchen. Another gunshot rang out and Rosa shot her eyes over to Terry, who had managed to fire his gun at one of the attackers. Terry was huge and strong, and Damon saw that. Damon yelled for his guys to take him on while he stormed off to his beloved Nyssa who was attempting to get her breath back from her attack. 

“We are leaving. I’m coming back the moment they take out that mountain to get our Talia. She can’t hide forever in this poor excuse of an apartment.”

“Fuck you,” she retorted when he mentioned their daughter. She had protected her for 5 years, since the day she was born, and she wasn’t going to stop now. Damon’s goons had thrown her against the back wall in the living room which is where she had guided them. From her position on the floor, she ripped her gun from beneath a table while Damon wrenched her injured arm up, pulling her towards him. His stomach was met with her gun this time and she wasted no time in pulling the trigger. As he staggered to the floor, she turned the gun on the remaining men in the room and professionally shot each one in the head. They fell off of Terry like flies and just as she hit the last one, the once familiar sting of a knife sliced across her thigh, and as she fell in pain, it sliced across her back and then planted itself in her side.

She fell to the ground, stunned, and helplessly watched as Damon made his escape while calling in more backup. They had to get out of there before they arrived.

“Rosa!” Terry yelled as the floor shook in his strides towards her. He dropped down onto his knees and pulled her towards him. When she hissed in pain and pushed him away, he stopped his advances and instead helped pull her up from the floor like she wanted. “Rosa you don’t look so good, we need to get you to the hospital.”

To be honest, the state she was in scared Terry. It was tough to see due to her dark clothes but he knew she had been shot, and he witnessed Damon with the knife. Her bloody knuckles told him that she had been fighting for her life before he got there, she should have waited for him. He understood though; if it was his kids that were in danger, he wouldn’t have waited.

Rosa pushed him away, pulled the knife from her side in a pained groan, and stumbled over to the living room closet. “Terry, get Talia, we need to move.” As Terry called out the safe word that Rosa had taught him years ago, she grabbed their emergency go bags from the closet and then doubled over in pain. She was hurting, bad, but the hospital had to wait. They needed to get back to the precinct and to safety.

“Mommy!” Talia yelled in her tiny little 5-year-old voice when she saw her mother. “Mr. Terry said Cinnamon, so I knew it was safe to come out!” She ran into Rosa’s arms and she did her best to hug her terrified daughter without getting blood all over her pajamas. 

“Come on Tally, Terry said as he scooped up the girl and grabbed the bags from Rosa. He then grabbed onto Rosa and helped guide her to his squad car. He had debated on calling for backup the moment he saw the danger, but there wasn’t time when he heard the gunshot. Now that he was in the safety of his car though, he called Captain Holt and ordered a lockdown on the precinct. He knew Holt would have all calls directed to the Nine Eight so that the Nine Nine could deal with the mercenaries as well as Rosa’s crazy stalker psycho ex-husband who was still after her. 

As he drove with lights and sirens, he looked in the backseat and saw Rosa consoling little Talia. “Rosa, how ya feeling?”

“Like I got shot, Terry,” she responded shortly before dropping her tough girl demeanor. “I’m scared.”

“Hey,” Terry began softly, “You know the guys back at the Nine Nine are going to do whatever they can to keep you and Talia safe right?”

“Really? Like what Jake did to lead him right to us? Nora is dead because of him.” Nora was one of Rosa’s good friends. She was hired as a nanny for when Rosa was at work based on her martial arts skills and just all-around protective nature. She didn’t know Rosa’s past, maybe she should have told her though and let her choose for herself whether to put her life in danger watching over her daughter. 

“Rosa…”

“I know Terry, he meant well. Hey, how are you holding up?” she asked as she realized she didn’t know Terry’s current state.

“I’m fine. Just a couple of bruises and cuts,” he answered truthfully as he watched out of his rear-view mirror.

Rosa started to panic. “Are they behind us?”

“I don’t know, I don’t think so, but we have to assume they know where you work if they found your apartment. Anyways, were here. Let’s hurry and get you two inside before we attract your friends.”

“Ha ha,” she said mockingly as her eyes darted all around the parking lot. They were going straight through the front; it was less of a chance of being ambushed than in the back. It was time to face the music and let the squad in on her secret life.


	2. Within These Walls

At the precinct, Terry got out of the car and immediately opened the back door and grabbed Talia. He used himself as a human shield while he helped Rosa out, just in case the danger had followed them there. They were safe for the moment, but Rosa had become shaky after the ordeal she had been through. Somehow, she managed to put on another of her leather jackets over her bloodstained body that she had grabbed from her apartment; presumably to keep Talia from getting anymore scared than she already was. He had wanted to check in on her injuries but there was no time for that until they were on the inside. From the way Rosa was gritting her teeth and was avoiding eye contact though, he knew she was in a world of pain. Talia had leaned away from him with her little arms outstretched to her mother, but all Rosa could do was cup her tiny, tear streaked face and give her a reassuring kiss to her forehead.

“Come on, i've got you,” Terry voiced as he pulled the little girl back as they hurriedly made their way into the precinct. Once he was buzzed into the locked down precinct, he got them into the elevator and heard Rosa sigh in relief; they were safe. “How do you want to handle this?” he asked her as she leaned heavily onto the wall. He watched her eyes find Talia and relax before shrugging her good shoulder.

“I don't know,” she answered, “ head straight for Holt’s office I guess until we figure out a game plan.”

That wasn't really what he meant when he had asked, he wasn't sure how to handle their friends inside. In all essence though, making a beeline for Holt’s office would postpone the inevitable explanation for a little longer at least.

When the detectives floor neared, Rosa straightened up and nodded to Terry to pull Talia’s hood up. She didn't want the uneasy detectives in the room to scare her even more than she already was. Lockdowns on a police precinct didn't happen very often, and when they did, the tense people on the other side of the elevator were bound to flood them with question on if they knew anything. No one allowed in or out...except for them?

The doors dinged and Terry cringed when Rosa took a step that was followed by a pained squeak. She forced it away though and took the lead, replacing her pain with concentration and entered the bullpen without so much as a glance at anyone in the room. Terry followed with Talia in his arms and was extremely aware of the stares that they were getting. He followed Rosa into Holt’s office and closed the door behind him.

Captain Holt immediately rose from his seat and rushed over to them, prepared to help the clearly frazzled group. Terry pushed Talia into his tense arms and then made it over to Rosa in one stride.

“They were already there when I got there,” Terry explained as he made Rosa sit down.

“Is she okay?” Holt asked as he awkwardly held the spitting image of Rosa in his arms. He was in the same boat as Terry, never having met Rosa’s daughter because of the fierce protectiveness she always exhibited in their weekly check ins. Witness Protection could only do so much, but it was Rosa who had went to Terry when she had first joined the Nine Nine to tell him who she was. She needed someone behind her that she could rely on if Damon were to ever find her, and Terry was that someone. Of course, since she was in Witness Protection, it only made sense for the police captains that she worked for to be in the know as well. Captain Holt was the only Captain that she had ever worked under to be truly supportive and have mandatory check ins each week. He wanted her to be able to talk to him and express her fears since literally no one else knew her story.

“_She_ is fine,” Rosa choked out with a strained look on her face. “And _she_ is right here.”

“Clearly,” Holt responded as he looked over the exhausted group. He took in her bloodied knuckles and from the way she was holding her body, he knew she had hidden injuries under her coat. When he saw a small puddle of blood begin to form on the ground next to her boots, he looked closer and noticed that her black pants were actually coated in blood from a gash on her thigh. “Good lord Rosa, you need a hospital,” he said in surprise.

“No! No hospitals, at least not now,” she protested until Terry jumped in.

“I agree sir, Damon had a whole fleet of his men with him and they were going to stop at nothing until they got her. I can almost bet that the moment we step out of this building, someone is going to get killed. You know as well as I do that he is crazy enough to attack a police precinct. He did it before when the FBI had her.

When Talia started to cry louder because their conversation, Rosa made a move to get up and get to her, but she collapsed onto the floor on her knees. “I said im fine!” she yelled although she made no move to get up.

“Rosa?” Terry asked worriedly as he dropped down beside her and realized that she was crying. “Hey, hey, you're going to be okay.”

She was too weak to protest and leaned into him when he pulled her closer. “I don't want my baby in the middle of this.”

Terry looked up and around for a moment. “Captain, do you think Gina can watch Talia in here while we move to the conference room? We need to figure out a plan, and I think Rosa is going to pass out in a minute. We have got to stop this bleeding.”

Holt leaned over the couch and knocked on his window that backed up to Gina’s desk. She entered moments later and closed the door behind her. When her eyes found Rosa on the floor with Terry all but holding her up, she knew something bad was going on even before she noticed Rosa’s bloodied knuckles and cut face.

Before Captain Holt could even ask her anything, she shushed him since she already knew what they were going to ask. “Okay fine, Ill watch the kid while you guys get patched up. Is Rosa okay?”

“She’s fine,” Terry sighed as Holt handed a struggling Talia over to her.

“Hey, kid, watch the hair!” she scolded as she tried to hold onto the kid who was trying to get down. “You're okay! These nice people are going to talk about grownup stuff while we hang out in here! See, look, that funny lady there fell asleep because she knows grown up stuff is boring!”

“Oh shit!” Terry yelled when he noticed what Gina had so eloquently saw. “Rosa! Rosa wake up,” he cried as he tried gently shaking her awake. Talia knew that something was wrong with her mother and started screaming louder and trying to get to her. “Holt, grab the door and tell someone to get the trauma kit and get to the conference room.” He then scooped up Rosa’s unconscious form and rushed from the office, leaving Gina confused with a random kid that she thought they had just found on the street or something.

Jake was the first one to confront them and followed hot on his trail. “Terry what's going on? Why is the precinct on lock down and OH MY GOD WHY IS ROSA UNCONSCIOUS IN YOUR ARMS!”

Terry did his best to ignore him and rushed into the conference room with Jake, Charles, and Holt right behind him. He laid Rosa on a table and before he could even say anything, Amy ran in with the trauma kit in hand.

“What the hell is going on?” she demanded as the rest of the squad surrounded the table.

All of the commotion started bringing Rosa around again and when she saw the crowd, she struggled to sit up. Jake tried to help and supported her shoulder, but unfortunately, it was the one she had been shot in. A sound that no one on the team had ever heard from their dark haired teammate ripped from Rosa’s throat as a pained scream escaped her lips. Everyone but Terry immediately backed away as Rosa tried curling into herself. “Hey, you're okay, you're okay. Its safe, you are at the precinct, surrounded by all of your friends.” She had shared with Terry once that she suffered from nightmares and would wake feeling like she was back in the clutches of Damon. The things that he used to do to her still haunted her and suddenly waking up in pain did nothing to soothe those fears. Terry talked to her and then when she finally came around, she demanded for every one to leave.

A simple command of “leave,” from Rosa Diaz would normally make anyone in hearing distance run for their lives, but the worry they had for their friend trumped that. When no one budged, Rosa’s walls crumpled, and she pleaded instead. “Please?” Now, everyone wanted to run. Rosa never pleaded and their concern grew tenfold.

“Rosa…” Jake began before being cut off by Rosa when the fire returned to her eyes.

“Oh, now you want to call me Rosa? After you fucked everything up and put our lives in danger?”

Realizing that she was hurt because of him made him take a step back as she struggled to sit up again. Terry helped her this time and then opened up the trauma kit.

“What happened out there?” Amy asked as her fingers trailed over a cut on Rosa’s nose. Rosa swatted her away and swayed, with Jake stepping back up and gently steadying her. She glared at him but allowed him to stay; she knew it wasn't really all his fault, he was just being Jake.

“Later,” Terry said worriedly. “We need to stop the bleeding.”

“Bleeding?” Everyone asked in unison as Terry pushed Charles out of the way and cut the fabric around Rosa’s pants that revealed a very large gash.

“Oh my god!” Charles yelled, “I didn't even see that!”

“Amy,” Terry ordered while he cleaned the wound, “help her get that jacket off and see what you can do.”

Amy did as she was told and the room gasped at the damage hidden beneath the coat. “How are you not screaming right now?”

“I'm used to it,” she slipped and immediately hung her head in shame. No more questions were asked until Amy admitted that she needed Rosa to remove her shirt so she could see what needed to be done better. The boys shifted uneasily until Rosa rolled her eyes and helped Amy remove it. “Relax, it's just a sports bra,” she said through gritted teeth at the pain the movement caused. She grimaced when she saw her stab wound and put pressure on it while Amy assessed the bullet wound that seemed to have her worried.

When Jake looked down at her back from his position behind her, his body tensed up as he immediately realized what exactly she was running from. “Rosa, no,” he pleaded as his eyes remained glued to the criss crossed marks littering her delicate skin. “I had no idea...he did this to you?”

Charles, Amy, and even Holt were taken aback when they were curious enough to look at what Jake saw. They saw the large, angry mark that Damon had left from the apartment earlier, but they also noticed the healed cuts and gashes that stood out like knives across her back. Rosa cleared her throat at the discomfort and everyone immediately stopped staring and gave Terry and Amy some space to work. Terry made eye contact with Rosa and saw the tears forming there. It was killing her to be so weak and needing help. She had told him a few years ago that she didn't need it, that she could take care of herself after getting cut from a broken window while chasing a perp. Her back was bleeding and she told no one until Terry saw it. He forced her to sit down and let him look at it and she nearly decked him for it. It was only when he mentioned Talia that she broke down and finally admitted that she needed help; help beyond a simple cut to her back. He was the only one at the time who knew her story and when he lifted her shirt to patch it up, she immediately broke down when he dropped her shirt back down in shock.

_“Hey, Rosa im sorry...I didn't mean it to upset you.”_

_She reigned in her emotions and stood up to leave as her defense mechanism. Still wanting to help her, Terry grabbed her wrist and forcefully pulled her back down. There was no way he was going to let her tough girl attitude keep her from getting the necessary medical treatment. When she tensed at the motion and fear flashed into her eyes, he realized that he had made yet another mistake. Her eyes became wild and darted around the room, looking for an escape. “Rosa!” he yelled, trying to get her attention, “Rosa look at me!” he convinced as he held his hands out to her in a non threatening way. “You are fine, im sorry, I didn't mean to.” After a minute of calming her down, her eyes returned to normal but they now brimmed with tears that were starting to spill over._

_“Terry, please help me.” And that was it. She collapsed into his arms and cried harder than she had in years. Terry held her and reassured her while she leaned on someone for the first time in a long time._

Over the years, he had a few breakthroughs and found out some of the things that had happened to her. Each time, he fought back the anger he felt and simply listened when she needed him to. When he would leave, something always was found broken around the precinct. She found Terry once right at the onset of one of her panic attacks which caused her to relive one of her more painful moments with Damon. The things she said as she cried out for him to stop tore Terry’s heart in two. He never looked at the scar on her eyebrow the same ever again, and the precinct mysteriously had to fix the wall in evidence that had several holes punched through.

“You okay?” he whispered to her as Amy was digging out the bullet still lodged in her shoulder.

She was about to nod yes, but then shook her head no while shaking her hair around her face in an attempt at hiding her tears from the rest of the team. Terry could tell that she was about to lose it as she fought to keep her breathing under control, a panic attack was creeping closer. He carried on as normal like she always told him to, but caught Holt’s eye and mouthed ‘panic attack’ to him. Holt then realized that everyone was watching Rosa, or touching Rosa, or trying to ask Rosa questions; no wonder she was spiraling.

“Uhh Jake, Charles, could you join me in checking in with the others to see where we are at with the lockdown? I want to know if anyone steps within a foot of this precinct.

For a moment, no one wanted to leave, but after a tense stare from Terry, they got the message and sulked from the room. Amy had stayed to help Terry and he could see that she was at a loss for words. She had never seen her friend like this, and she had so many questions but had no idea how to ask them.

“Rosa…” she began until Terry stopped her.

“Not now Santiago, she needs a break,” he said as he finished up working on Rosa’s leg.

After a few more minutes, they were done and against their wishes, Rosa got up, pulled on her shirt, and took a lap around the room to try and clear her head.

“You need to rest, Rosa, you lost a lot of blood. I don't even know how you are standing right now.” Amy was in awe of her partner. She was always the tough one and she could see now that the raven haired woman was trying her best to gain some more control over her emotions.

“I can't rest, Amy,” she shot back. “There is basically an army out there just waiting for me. They found me, again, and I'll be damned if I go easy. Either stay out of my way or help me figure out a way to get out of here without being seen.”

Amy looked confused. “Help you get out of here? No. I can clearly piece together that you have been running for a long time and now that who ever they are has caught up to you, you are planning on running again. No, I won't help you escape, I'm going to help you end this.”

“Us too,” 3 new voices added as Holt, Jake, and Charles re-entered the room.

Rosa tried to look tough, but she knew that she was failing miserably. Before she could make a fool of herself, she made up an excuse just so she could be alone for a few minutes. “I'm going to change.” She heard Amy and Terry begin to protest, but she ignored them and fled from the conference room and headed for the empty locker room where she could decompress for a minute. Passing the bullpen didn't help either. Everyone seemed to be staring at her which told her that they knew that this lockdown was happening because of her. She avoided their gazes and burst into the locker room, pressing her back against the door and sliding down to hug her knees. “Shit,” she groaned when the movement pulled at the stitches she had just received. After a few minutes of just thinking, she made up her mind to let her team know what was going on. She had realized that even if she pushed them away to keep them safe, they would just keep coming and do whatever they possibly could to keep her safe. She hated them for that, but it also made her love them even more. Pushing through the pain, she went through her locker and found a change of clothes and joined the on edge team back in the conference room.

“I told you guys, i'm not saying anything!” Terry was doing his best to dodge questions that the group were aiming at him. “If Rosa wants to let you guys in, she will.”

“How long have you known? About Diaz?” Charles asked.

Terry huffed in frustration. “Like I said, im not saying anything…”

“A few months after I joined the Nine Nine,” Rosa answered. All eyes turned to her as she entered the room and took a careful seat on the couch against the wall. “I had a panic attack one day and Terry was there. He said that I spilled some...personal stuff, and pieced it together. I had no choice but to tell him, but it was the best decision I’ve ever made. He got me through a lot of shit.” Rosa looked over to Terry and saw him smiling, he was a good friend.

“Rosa,” Jake began with hurt splayed across his face. “We went through the academy together, why didn't you tell me?”

“Because, Jake, it was an accident. I didn't want anyone knowing my personal business. It could get you killed.”  
Rosa could see that Jake was understanding, but he clearly still didn't like it. Amy popped up next with another question, the question.

“Rosa, what happened to you?”

Before she could even think of an answer, they all heard a child screaming from Holt’s office.

“Oh yeah,” Charles remembered, “did you guys find a kid on the street on your way over? She's got some pipes!” To be honest, everyone had wondered that when Rosa and Terry had arrived with the kid wrapped up in the sergeants arms.

Rosa painfully stood up, about to go to the child but she saw through the window Gina emerge with the kid kicking in her arms. She made a beeline for the conference room and barged in without so much as a knock.

“Terry, your stray keeps screaming for her mother,” she said exasperated as she pushed Talia into Terrys arms. “It's your turn to babysit.” When Gina saw Rosa standing up behind the group, she changed her approach. “Nevermind, Rosa’s up, you okay boo?”

The look in Gina’s eyes told Rosa that she had figured it out. When Talia saw Rosa at the other end of the room, she fought to get out of Terrys arms, to which he obliged, and watched the girl run into Rosa’s outstretched arms, tears streaming down her little face. The rest of the group watched in bewilderment as Rosa picked the kid up like she had done a thousand times, and saw how effortlessly her expression turned into one of pure love and relief.

“Hey baby, you're okay,” they heard her soothe to the crying child. “Mommy is here, im okay.”

“What in the actual hell?” Amy stammered in disbelief before crying out to an elbow in her ribs from Gina.

“Amy, language,” she scolded with a smirk on her face before walking over to Rosa and Talia. “Im sorry girl, she wouldn't stop crying until she saw you.”

“Its okay, thank you,” Rosa said as she carried Talia back over to the couch and sat down, holding her close like she never wanted to let go. Her tiny cries turned into hiccups as Rosa calmed her down. She looked up at Gina and asked her how she had figured it out.

“Seriously? Am I blind? No, I didn't think so. I took her jacket off and when I saw her face under that hood, I knew she was yours. There's no denying it.”  
Again, Amy piped up with another question. “You seriously have a kid? Rosa, please, what's going on?”

Rosa looked down and saw that Talia was now falling asleep, she had a rough night. She had told her about her father and how dangerous he was, but she didn't want her to know the gory details. It was a good thing that she was falling asleep. With a sigh, she began her story. “Damon was...bad. I was forced to get away away from him about seven years ago after he nearly killed me, but he would find me every time and… basically torture me for his own pleasure. He used to work for the FBI…”

“Wait, seven years ago?” Jake interrupted, “how old is…”

“Talia,” she answered to her daughters name protectively. “Talia is five.”

Still confused, Jake continued. “But you said that you ran from him seven years ago?”

When Terry saw Rosa shut down and hug Talia closer to her, he continued for her. He saw how her scarred eyebrow furrowed in sadness and he recalled how this part of her life caused him to basically destroy that wall down in evidence. “Rosa was hiding out in Florida, I think it was,” he began with a slight pause to gauge her reaction. She confirmed it with a nod, and he took the gesture as a ‘go ahead’ to continue for her. “Damon caught up to her and...kidnapped her; held her hostage for a few weeks…”

“I need some water,” Rosa said as she got up with a sleeping Talia still clinging to her. No one objected as she hastily left the room once again, they all knew she didn't want to hear this.

Terry continued. “He did some pretty messed up stuff. Rosa was in the middle of a panic attack down in evidence once when she told me. Some creep had grabbed her that night on her way into work, not knowing she was a cop, but she nearly killed the guy before bringing him in.”

“When was this?” Amy asked, not remembering anything about this at all.

“It was a few years ago,” Terry recalled. “Holt and I handled the case, she didn't want it getting out. Well, Damon had her for a few weeks in this warehouse I think it was, and based on what she was reliving, it was horrible.” Peeking out of the window to see Rosa in the break room, he continued with a haunted look on his face. “She was burned, hit, broke some bones, and then...Talia.”

Everyone in the room seemed to deflate at the information. They would have never guessed in a million years that she had been through that kind of hell.

Terry cleared his throat after an attempt to calm down again. “She was able to escape, and she ran again. She said that she stayed with a family member then but left again right after Talia was born after realizing that her family wouldn't be safe. Rosa was right, because after she left, her cousin ended up dead. There were other run ins with that asshole, but I don't know too much, Rosa refused to tell me. She eventually went into Witness Protection as well as the rest of her family, but Damon has never stopped looking for her. When Jake dug into her past, he lit up her trail again and that was all he needed to find her. Now, he's brought friends and will stop at nothing to get Rosa back.”

By the time Rosa walked back into the room, everyone had fallen silent. Amy saw that she was struggling to hold onto Talia so she moved up to her and Rosa let her take her daughter. Amy sat next to her on the couch and almost jumped in surprise when Rosa laid her head on her shoulder. Rosa was exhausted, both mentally and physically. Everyone saw that and crowded around her, giving her a gentle hug. They all promised and swore that they were going to get her out of this nightmare, no matter what it took.


	3. Into the Nightmare

Several hours had passed within the Nine Nine, and Captain Holt made the decision to bring the Nine Eight in to transfer what perps’ they had from the holding cell. If things went sideways, they didn't want ‘innocent’ bystanders in the way. He also let a few of their detectives go as well as non essential personnel. The Nine Eight saw to the evacuation and personally escorted them from the building without incident. All while this was happening, Rosa had retreated back into Captain Holt’s office with Talia and together they rested and recovered as best as they could. A worried Terry kept ducking his head into the office to check on them until Gina smacked him.

“They are fine, Terr Bear. They’re sleeping, or at least trying to with all your interrupting,” she argued in her iconic Gina voice.

“I know, but I just worry!” he argued back. He didn't like the way Rosa had looked earlier, but she was now at least getting some more color into her cheeks. 

After some more arguing back and forth, Jake and Amy ran up to him with concern etched across their faces.

“Sarge,” Jake began as Holt walked over to join them, “it might be nothing, but we keep seeing movement around the precinct. Charles said it was a cat, but my gut says someone is out there hiding out in the shadows.”

“I don't think it's paranoia,” Amy added. “I think they are here and we need to be ready, we need a plan.”

Terry was freaking out, they needed to move Rosa. The Captain's office would be the most logical place for the enemy to look, if it  _ was _ even the enemy hiding in the shadows. “I don't care if it  _ is _ a cat, we don't know what  _ it _ is, and we are going to treat it as a threat.”

“I agree,” Hold said as his mind started racing, and it never raced. “Lets move her down to Storage Room B, there's an old couch in there where they could at least be comfortable.”

“Don't tell her why,” Jake added. When everyone looked at him like he was crazy, he explained. “Don't you think that she would do whatever she could to keep Talia safe? Even if it meant handing herself over to that asshole?” When everyone remained silent, he knew that everyone agreed with him. Rosa may hate him for the idea later, but he would have to deal with that...later. He would just add that to the list of things he needed to apologize for.

“Fine,” Terry agreed grudgingly, “I'll go let her know we want to move her, ‘just in case’.”

At the door to Holt’s office, he gave a soft knock and then let himself in. Rosa was so exhausted that she didn't even wake up. It killed him to have to do it, she had Talia wrapped up in her arms and they were both in a deep sleep on the couch. With a sigh, he bent down and gently shook her awake. “Rosa,” he whispered, “Rosa, wake up.” When her eyes fluttered open in surprise, she flinched away from the hand on her arm. Terry offered her a gentle smile and then held his finger to his lips. Rosa realized where she was, safe, and then looked down at a sleeping Talia.

“What's going on?” she whispered back and now on high alert.

“Its okay,” Terry reassured her, “but Holt wants to move you guys as a precaution.”

“A precaution?” she asked as she shifted stiffly into a sitting position with Talia now clinging to her, still asleep.

“Yeah, he wants you down in Storage Room B. You guys will have everything you need in there. The less people that know where you are, the better.” When Rosa agreed with him, she stood with Talia and gasped in pain. “Here,” Terry offered, “let me take her.”

“I got it,” she said fiercely before shooting him an apologetic glance. With Damon caught up to them, she was more protective than ever with her daughter. She shifted Talia a little, and then followed Terry from the room and down the elevator to the Storage Room. 

The rest of the group still couldn't believe what they were seeing. Rosa,  _ their _ Rosa, had a child in her arms, and it was  _ hers _ . While Terry moved her, they glued themselves to their monitors and kept looking for ghosts. Holt finally saw what they were seeing, and it was most definitely  _ not _ a cat. Terry joined them later and let them know that Rosa was upset, but she understood that she needed to be out of the way, just in case. 

“Okay, that was not a cat,” Terry said as a body moved across the parking lot behind the precinct. It then walked up to the camera and stood there, just smiling into the frame before raising a gun and shooting it. The camera feed corrupted and they all growled when they lost their eye on the lot. “That's him, that was Damon. He’s here.”

“Gina,” Holt commanded. “Go join Rosa, I don't want you getting hurt when the firefight happens. Make something up if she asks why you're there.”

“You got it dude,” she chanted and hopped into the elevator. “Oh wait, she yelled before the doors closed, “can I at least have a gun?”

“No,” everyone shouted at once. Gina with a gun would not go over so well for anyone.

“You won't need one because no one is going to know where you are,” Terry reminded her as the door was closing.

“Oh yeah,” was the last thing they heard from her before they all rushed around precinct, gathering gear that they would undoubtedly need.

It wasn't even five minutes later that they heard three shots fired off in warning out on the floors balcony. All eyes shot over and they saw not one, but three men staring back at them from the window. Everyone wondered how they hell they even made it up there.

“That door better be locked!” Holt yelled as Terry, Charles, Jake, and Amy all jumped behind Jakes desk for cover. Everyone else in the room did the same behind whatever they could find and trained their weapons on the intruders. With a stroke of luck, the door  _ was _ locked as one of the guys wiggled the doorknob, but if the enemy wanted to get in, they would get in. No one moved for several minutes; no one knew what to do. The maniacs on the balcony were not doing anything, they were just staring at them as if daring them to make the first move. What were they doing? Amy counted seven minutes of the tense standoff until a voice startled them all.

“What's everyone lookin’ at?” a strange voice sang from behind them. “Oh, I see, my friends are locked out on the balcony.”

Half of the room refocused their weapons on the man who had just joined them, and their faces fell.

“Damon,” Terry said as he stood, weapon pointed expertly at the intruder.

“Now, now,” Damon said mockingly as a few more men entered the room from the stairwell, “I don't want to start a firefight, someone might get hurt.” He smiled wickedly as two of his men slowly made their way over to the locked balcony door, one of them in an officers uniform. No one dared to fire their weapon, there was sure to be casualties in such tight quarters. 

“Damn it,” Jake said to his partners around him as they eyed the ‘officer’ who unlocked the door. “He must have sneaked in when the Nine Eight were here. He let them all in.”

“I've got to say, I thought you guys would be more...threatening?”

“Yeah,” Terry said as he kept his gun aimed at Damon, “says the guy who ran from me earlier. What's the matter? Afraid to take me?”

“Take you?” Damon asked with a laugh, “no, I retreated because I wanted to. I wanted to make Nyssa suffer. I wanted her to be looking over her shoulder, wondering when I would pop up again.”

Terry scoffed. “Her name isn't Nyssa anymore. She left that life behind the day she got away from you.” Damon shuffled in his annoyance. He was clearly thinking about something but before he could speak, Terry sent another jab his way. “How's your stomach? I saw Rosa nail you with a bullet before you ran like a little bitch.”

Damon sighed and put his hands on his hips. The evil in his gaze told the room that he was angry and out for revenge. “Oh, I’m fine, but she won't be. When I get my hands on her, she is going to wish that she was never born. Now where is she?” Just as they thought, his eyes shot over to Captain Holt’s closed off office.

“How can you say that?” Amy asked this time, clearly distressed. “She is the mother to your child. Don't you feel anything for them?”

When another of Damons men stepped into the room from a hallway and locked eyes with him, Damons whole demeanor changed. He raised his gun and pointed it straight at Terry. Everyone in the room suddenly tensed and the clink of ready to fire guns echoed around the room, each one daring the other to make the first shot. “Last chance to hand her over before we paint this whole room red.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Jake yelled as he pointed his gun around the room in anticipation. “Take a look around, asshole, you are clearly outnumbered. Think about what is about to happen for a second.”

Damon eyed the room before dramatically waving his gun away from the sergeant. “Fine, fine; but this isn't over. I will never stop looking for her. And if you guys follow a single one of us, your family members will start dropping off like flies. And when you have no one left but yourselves...well, I think you can figure out the rest.” Damon's guys covered him while they all made their exit. No one dared go after them, they had no idea if he had more men waiting for them outside or not, but it didn't matter. The team knew their faces and they would figure out a way to arrest every single one of them. No one relaxed until the all clear was given, and when it did, the precinct erupted into a flurry of motion. Everyone seemed to be on the phone at the same time, calling in favors and alerting the nearest precincts that a man hunt was about to begin. Holt got into contact with Witness Protection to order a mass protection order against the families of the precinct. This madman needed to be taken off of the streets as soon as possible. 

Trusting that Holt had it all under control, the team regrouped to figure out their next move. “Do we risk moving her again?” Amy asked in concern.

Jake sighed, it was too dangerous to do that without a major plan. “What if Damon is still watching the building, waiting for just that? We could be serving her up on a silver platter.”

“Well,” Terry began, “I think we need to bring Rosa into the conversation. She needs to be a part of this. The danger is over, at least for the moment.”

Jake rubbed his face in frustration. “None of this would have even happened if I would have just dropped this whole thing. I can't  _ believe _ I didn't pick up on the clues. I knew something was off, but my big ego forced me to get to the bottom of her history.”

“Jake,” Charles interjected, “If you hadn't of done this the way you did, and  _ he _ found her some other way...we would have never known what had happened to her.”

“As much as I hate to admit it, Charles is right,” Terry agreed. “She's been looking over her shoulder for much of her life, and so have I. Every time my phone rings, I dread seeing Rosa’s name pop up on my caller ID saying that he found her; this needs to end.”

“Come on, let's go get her. Gina is probably driving her insane right now,” Amy said as she turned for the boys to follow her. 

As they navigated the halls and staircase, they kept their weapons on the ready, just in case any of Damons men were still in the building. It was when they saw the empty door to the storage room did they abandon all caution. The door was open, and on the inside, empty.

“Where the hell did they go?” Terry yelled in frustration with a tinge of fear. 

“Babylon!” Charles yelled and then took off down the hallway to their secret bathroom. 

“Baby’what?” Jake asked as they raced.

“Babylon, it's a secret bathroom Gina and Rosa showed me. Well, not so secret anymore. Were here.” He stopped outside of an old filing cabinet that no one ever used anymore, and rolled it aside to reveal a secret door behind it. The moment he opened the door though, he was face to face with the barrel of a gun. “Whoa whoa, Gina! Its us!” he yelled at the woman pointing the weapon in his face. 

“Jesus Charles, you scared the crap out of me!” she yelled in relief. 

Terry stepped up and took the gun from her and watched as she adjusted Talia in her arms. “Gina, where in the hell did you get a gun?”

When Gina looked at them sheepishly, they all realized what had happened even before she said it. “We heard shots ring out, and Rosa just knew that he was here. She made me promise to take her gun and hide with Talia in here, just incase he found her. I think...I think she gave herself up to keep Talia...and you guys safe.”

“My god,” Jake said as he realized what had gone down in the bullpen. “When that other guy came in from the hallway, he gave Damon a weird look before Damon flipped out. I think the guy was telling him that they had her. Damon just needed to make something up to get themselves out of there without incident.”

“I think you're right,” Amy said as tears started blurring her vision. “It was too easy, he got in and out without a single person getting shot. He used himself as the distraction while his guys combed the building for her.”

“He knew we would move her,” Terry added as his body turned to lead. “We lost her.”

“No,” Jake barked out as he turned and made his way to the weapons room, “we are going to find her if its the last thing we do; Amy...” he called as they hurried along, “find Holt and tell him what went down. “Charles, get with Amy and Holt and try to figure out where they would have taken her. Terry, you're with me. We are going out there to get our friend back.”


	4. Tempest

The grogginess of coming to did nothing to chase away the pain that encompassed Rosa Diaz’s body. _What the hell? _She thought before vaguely remembering what had happened. _They had both heard the gunshots. Gina and Rosa both jumped in response, wasting no time in handing Talia over to her. “Babylon, now,” she whispered as she followed them out of the storage room, gun drawn and protecting Gina’s six. Once outside of their sacred bathroom, Rosa pushed the filing cabinet out of the way and pushed her gun into Gina’s free hand. “Stay, don’t come out until I come get you.”_

_“Rosa, no, get in here. How the hell are they going to find you in here?” Gina begged._

_Instead of answering, Rosa shoved her just a little harder and then shoved the door closed before sealing their hiding spot with the filing cabinet. She knew that no one would find her in there, and that was the problem. Damon would kill half of this precinct in order to get to her, and she couldn’t let that happen. Talia had to stay safe, her friends had to stay safe. Making her way back to the storage room, she left the door open just a crack to watch for mercenaries. There was no other way to get to Babylon except for this hallway, so she couldn’t let anyone pass, lest they heard Talia crying. She didn’t have to wait long until a shadow crept passed the door. Slipping out as silently as her damaged body would allow, she grabbed the guy in a chokehold before quickly snapping his neck. Unfortunately, there was no time to drag the body back into the shadows of the storage room when three more men rounded the corner and made eye contact with her. She fought back, hard, but she was just too weak to take them all on herself, especially when one of them withdrew a syringe from his pocket and shoved the needle deep into her arm. She watched as the vile liquid disappeared into her system and tried her hardest to fight the sleepiness that eventually consumed her. _

Shaking her head to clear away the grogginess, a pained yelp escaped her lips before she could stop it. It felt as if her skull was cracked open, and it could have very well been if she was able to move her hands to feel it. Quickly finding that her hands were bound, she tried her best to get them free. _Zip ties. _Although difficult to get out of, it wasn’t impossible. As she worked, she carefully lifted her head to get a picture of where she was. Dim light shone through holes in the roof of some kind of warehouse and fear gripped her when she realized how close it looked to the one she was imprisoned in five years ago. Not only that, she seemed to be in a cage, a step up in security to make sure she stayed put this time. Laying her head back down, she felt her cheek twitch when a cold stickiness coated it once more. She was lying in a pool of her own blood. _Damnit, a head injury_ _is not what I need right now, _she though in a panic. A tiny smile of triumph cracked in the corner of her lips when the felt the zip ties pop, so she slowly sat up, her head barely touching the top of the cage. It was roughly six feet wide by seven long, and it backed up against a steel wall behind her. If she stayed in the center all the way in the back, she knew human arms couldn’t reach her, but other things might. Reaching her hand up, she found a large gash just next to her temple which explained her headache as well as most of the blood. Just before she was going to assess the rest of her injuries, the door to the room she was in slammed open, and her heart stopped when the lights flipped on; it was Damon.

As he walked closer, another smile cracked across her face as she recalled what she had done to his face. “How’s your nose?” she mocked, much to the dismay of her captor. _After being sedated in the precinct, Rosa found herself jarred awake not even an hour later. The quick movement ignited pain in her shoulder and side but told her that she was in a van on a grimy floor, on the move to who knows where. Another quick jar tossed her to the side, but it was the face that then invaded her vision that caused her to involuntarily gasp in alarm. The manic smile on the man’s lips turned into a confused frown when she smiled back, but that compared insignificantly to the pain and rage in his features that followed her false smile. Blood sprayed from his nose when she channeled all of her anger into one of her greatest headbutts of the century. The copper taste of his blood on her tongue tasted like sweet revenge and followed her back into darkness when the butt of his gun smashed into her forehead._

The swelling on his nose had gone down, but the slight bruising under his eyes told her that he was still feeling the effects of her attack.

“My nose is fine, Nyssa, how is your head?” he asked. When he didn’t get an answer, fury raged in his eyes once again. He was used to a more submissive nature from her. “I asked you a question.”

“Hmm? What? Were you talking to me?” she mocked, “I lost interest as soon as you started talking. Nasally voices are no go for me.”

Damon didn’t like that. He advanced on the cage so quickly that all Rosa could do was react. She threw herself into the back of the cage, ramming her back into the cold metal and re-opening her knife wound from earlier that night. Coming to her senses, she grabbed onto the bar behind her and pulled herself up some, although her eyes were still wild in fear. _Get it together, Rosa, _she told herself and steadied her breathing. The laugh coming from Damon did little to calm her nerves, and she was embarrassed to the way she had just reacted.

“I was going to ask who you were and what you had done with my wife, but I see that I’ve found her,” he taunted, loving the way she had reacted to him. It was almost like old times.

“She’s gone,” Rosa said. She hid the tremble in her voice well, but deep down, she was still shaken to the core.

Another sadistic smile cut across his face. “Oh well see about that, wont we, _Rosa_.”

“Don’t you ever call me that, you have no right!” She snapped back in anger, although she didn’t move from her ‘safe spot’ in the cage.

“No right? Why not, its not like its even your real name,” he asked.

_Shit. _He had been looking for a way to strike a nerve, and she practically gave him what he wanted. “No, you won’t take this from me. You already ruined my name once; you do not get to mess up this life as well. Its MINE.” Witness Protection had giver her this name, and she fought hard to make it mean something. She never wanted to feel like Nyssa Rivera again, she was Rosa Diaz, a baddass detective who took shit from no one.

Damon was frustrated, he wanted so badly to get his hands on her again, but he knew that _Rosa Diaz _was not going to make it easy. He needed her to suffer for running away from him before he tried to get answers about where his money went; he had to change his approach. “Come on, _Rosa_, just give up this little act you’re trying to play, come home. We can be a family; you, me, and Talia…”

“Keep her name out of your filthy mouth!” she challenged.

There; there’s a nerve he could pull at and get her to do whatever he wanted. “Keep her name out of my mouth? Why? She’s my daughter just as much as she is yours.”

“She is NOT your daughter; she has no father as far as I’m concerned. You are going to stay far away from her, or I swear you will burn in a place far worse than hell after I kill you.” She wanted to hurt him for talking about her daughter, but how?

Now she struck a nerve, and it wasn’t because of Talia. He did _not_ like being told what to do, especially from _her_. “Excuse me? Where do you get off on telling _me_ what to do?”

Rosa watched as his expression turned dark, but for some reason, it didn’t register as she was still so upset over his claim of Talia. She had been inching forward in her frustration and like Icarus to the Sun, she got too close.

“I will do whatever I feel like to you, and even to Talia. What the hell are you going to do while being stuck in a cage like the animal that you are?” Not wasting his chance, he thrust his arm between the bars and pulled her towards him, grabbing her around the neck in the process. “Do you want to know what your cousin said to me, right before I killed her five short years ago? Right after you had Talia? She said that she wished she would have never taken you in. She said she knew you were in trouble, and she should have just let that phone ring.”

“You…you’re lying,” Rosa choked out. Her cousin had been the sweetest person she had ever met, even sweeter than Amy Santiago if anyone could believe it.

Damon continued, enjoying the sounds of her struggles. “And then there was Talia’s babysitter earlier tonight, did she even know about your past? Nora, was it? Did she even know that someone was willing to kill to get to you and Talia? Did she know the dangers of the job? Everywhere you go, _Rosa_, bodies fall. Ill add your teammates to the list if they even bother looking for you. But why would they after the lies? No one would love you like I would.”

He didn’t even get to finish when her anger boiled over and she tore his arm away from her throat, grabbing his arm, and wrenching it the wrong way against the bars. “Aaghh!” he grunted as he was unable to move. “Get your hands off of me you bitch!” As the pressure mounted, so did his own anger. He grabbed into his waistband with his free hand and pulled out the taser he had hidden away. One quick shock to her neck made her let go, but also shocked him. The only difference was that he was larger and more prepared for it, she wasn’t. He recovered quickly and then hit her again with the charge, holding it a little longer than recommended but he didn’t care, he was the one in control now. When she dropped to the floor, he took out the key from his pocket and quickly unlocked her cell before ducking in and grabbing her, dragging her helplessly across the concrete floor.

He underestimated how tough this new Rosa was. Even though she should still be feeling the effects of the voltage, she grabbed onto the arm that was dragging her and clawed her way up to a standing position before kneeing him in his stomach. It hurt, bad, especially after having been shot by her earlier that night. She would have expected him to double over, so he did, but he used that to tackle her to the floor instead. They hit the ground hard, but Rosa managed to roll away from him and pulled herself up, though slower this time. For just a second while her back was turned, he noticed the blood soaking though her shirt from his handiwork with his knife earlier that night. She spun to face him and instead of fear, determination started back at him. Her head wound had bled down her face and stained her shoulder red, mixing with the older, darker red blood already staining it from reopening her gunshot wound. Her side oozed, and her thigh wound was making her favor that leg. This woman was strong willed, and he needed to change that.

Running at her and catching her off guard, he grabbed onto her and threw her into a stack of wooden crates, smashing them from the pure force of it. Getting weaker, she tried crawling away from him to save herself from any more damage to her broken body. Her poor attempt proved to be unsuccessful when he stormed over and pulled her back, flipping her over and pinning her to the ground. Her quick thinking had given her a weapon the moment she had crashed into those crates though. She gripped the long wooden shard and plunged it deep into Damon’s side, causing him to roar in displeasure. Before he could even think to pull it out, he hit her, unyielding, across the face and split her lip in the process. He pulled it out then and threw it to the side. A madness that she had seen before crept its way into his stare and she froze, but this only seemed to delight him.

His hands found their way to her throat again, and out of instinct, she clawed at them to get them away. Its was easy then for him to grab her thin wrists in an instant, and then pin them above her head with one hand. “I’ve had Nyssa Rivera before, but what does Rosa Diaz taste like?”

Damon adjusted his position as Rosa writhed beneath him in an effort to get him off, but it was no use in her weakened state. With his free hand, he snaked it up her body and beneath her shirt, enjoying the fight she was putting up. With a twirl of his hand, he caught a handful of already tattered cloth and ripped it away from her body, leaving her in nothing but her short workout shorts and sports bra, the only things that she had in her locker back at the precinct. From the way she was fighting, he was surprised to hear the whimper of fear tear from her soul at the movement. Pleasure filled his entire being and his mind went into a frenzy when he saw her bruised but tone body. He hit her once again to still her movements, but also to free his hands to rip his own shirt off before pinning her arms above her head once again. Before he could violate her any further though, a sudden bang from the door flying open shattered the barbaric act that was about to take place.

“What?” Damon yelled and looked over his shoulder as the ecstasy of the moment vanished. One of his mercenaries leaned against the doorframe, almost looking bored. Rosa’s quivering form beneath him kept him excited, and he relished in the fact that she most definitely felt him. “This had better be good,” he growled and focused back on the body pinned beneath him. His hand traced the lines on her chest, and the tears that ran from Rosa’s eyes and carved down her face made him beam in pleasure.

“Sorry to interrupt…whatever this is,” the guy said with a knowing huff, “but there’s something you need to see up here,” he finished.

Getting upset at the thought of leaving this…moment, Damon stopped his tracing and grabbed Rosa’s injured shoulder in frustration. Not being able to stop, she cried out in pain and hated herself for what had almost happened before the interruption. Her entire body began shaking from shock, her body wanting so to shut down from both the mental and physical assault she had been through in the past six hours.

“Fine,” he said as he pulled himself off her and stood in triumph, grinning at the state he had put her in. This Rosa was a wild card though, he needed to make sure that she would stay down until he returned. Delivering a swift kick into her side, he relished in the sound of a rib cracking in combination with a loud grunt of pain from the dark-haired beauty bleeding into the drab concrete under his feet. She rolled over in an attempt to protect herself but was rewarded with another kick to her back that stole the breath from her already screaming lungs. Even if she wanted to, there was no fight as he dragged her battered body across the concrete, and back into the cage, tearing her skin across the abrasive floor in the process. As he left, the air stubbornly made its way back into her lungs as her hyperventilation started to slow. The oxygen recharged her for only a moment to which she used to drag herself to the back of the cage and collapsed in exhaustion. The pain was so bad that she wanted to die, but dying was the cowards way out. Rosa Diaz was not a coward and she would get through this. Her eyes fluttered for a few seconds more, and then the familiar darkness crept into her bones, turning them to lead before trickling into her mind and pulling her under into unconsciousness.


End file.
